#Immigrate to Canada in 2022

[npzlawyersforimmigration]

USCIS Updates Policy Guidance on T Visa for Human Trafficking Victims.

https://visaserve.com/uscis-updates-policy-guidance-on-t-visa-for-human-trafficking-victims/

#TvisaUpdate #HumanTraffickingAwareness #ImmigrationNews #ProtectVictims #USCISGuidance #StayInformed #LegalSupport

[newyorkmylife]

New York, hi again

Late April 2022

I waited and waited for my PR card to arrive in the mail but with no avail. It had already been 2 whole months and I just wanted to go on a vacation, but without that card I might have issues coming back to Canada.

After thinking about many different options, I decided I had waited long enough. I decided to go to New York regardless of the PR card!

So I did.

I booked the flight and felt excited and scared at the same time.

I hadn't gone on vacation for 2 years because of the pandemic, but finally the moment had come.

I had covid in March so I didn't have to worry about disease anymore. Yes, traveling without a PR card might be foolish but there are ways to come back by crossing via land.

What will it be like to set foot in New York City again, after 3 long years? After what felt like hell had unfolded on humanity? Will it feel the same as it did when I visited at the young age of 18?

I landed at LaGuardia. It was rainy but still felt like New York. I went to the room I had booked a few days prior to drop my backpack and take a nap. I didn't sleep the night before.

So my adventure - my new life - began. I wanted to experience the city as a local and booked for 2 weeks. I visited most of the tourist attractions on my previous trips so I shifted my focus on making new connections and hopefully some friends. It was time to set my foot in the door.

I used a recently created app to meet people who work in tech in the city. I quickly had the chance to talk with people that work at big companies or own a business themselves.

On my first day in New York, I went to a social crypto event and the first person I talked to was a cute girl from Hawaii that had moved a couple months earlier to go to NYU. I still regret to this day not being able to get her Instagram or phone number. I also met a Palestinian guy who worked in Germany and had transferred to the company's New York office a few weeks earlier.

In the days after, I explored places all over Manhattan, walked for miles and took in all of the New York City vibes. My favorite park is Bryant Park. I would stop there pretty often - it's such a beautiful green oasis in the middle of Manhattan. It's peaceful but at the same time bustling with energy and busy with people who go there just to relax, eat or work on their laptops. The New York Public Library sits right by the park and it has a smaller branch at the corner of a building sitting across the street - the recently renamed Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. I was passing by it when I took a look through the glass wall: clean, orderly, peaceful. It was just so inviting for someone who walked all day long and wanted to take a break from the busyness of the city. I entered, walked around a bit and chose a book. I found a nice spot where I could sit and started reading. That might sound like the most mundane of all things, but for me it's as rare as spotting a camel in the Lower East Side.

writing interrupted (sorry)

[inc-immigrationnewscanada]

New IRCC Instructions For Post Graduate Work Permit (PGWP)

🇨🇦 December 23 - #IRCC made an update removing all #international students #COVID program delivery instructions for post graduate #workpermit ! 🇨🇦 Get full #details here! 👇

On December 23, 2022 IRCC provided a program update removing all students COVID-19 program delivery instructions after August 2023. These operational instructions and guidelines are used by IRCC staff to process applications. So, these new instructions means immigration staff has been advised that special COVID measures will no longer be applicable after August 2023. However, any international…

[communistkenobi]

Wegenschimmel & McLaughlin (2024) - The Great Canadian Paradox: Jordan Peterson, Right‑Wing Canadian Internet Personalities, and the End of Canadian Exceptionalism?

This article was published this year. what the fuck are you bozos talking about

Jordan Peterson is not "difficult to classify" he is a far-right public figure very plainly and openly, if you have a hard time sussing out his politics you are a moron who takes everything he says at face value and are therefore completely useless as a social scientist

there are many right wing 'populist' politicians in Canadian politics! Doug Ford modeled himself after Trump during his campaign in Ontario in 2018 and has been in power since then. Pierre Poilievre is the current leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and is doing anti-woke transsexual groomer and "stop radical immigration" shit, and the CPC are almost certainly going to win the upcoming federal election. The People's Party of Canada was created in 2018 by Maxime Bernier and quadrupled their vote in the last federal election running on an anti-vax platform. Jason Kenny is a lifelong right-wing anti-abortion homophobic shithead who was premiere of Alberta from 2019-2022. Kevin O'Leary ran for the leader of the CPC! a fucking celebrity host on a stupid reality television show. and these are all off the top of my head, all in the last 5-10 years. if i were writing an academic article about this surely i would find more examples

Proving that all Canadian academics have terminal US brain by bringing up Putin, who is completely irrelevant to domestic right wing organizing and only matters if you've spent the last eight years having public panic attacks about russian interference in US elections

idk i grew up under Stephen Harper, I remember how stupidly right wing the ambient discourse was from adults around me, I remember how right-wing our media was and still is, particularly how openly islamophobic and racist Quebec is, how anti-immigrant and anti-indigenous Ontario is, how racist and christian Alberta is, the current catastrophic opioid crisis in British Columbia because even the granola-munching libs in BC hate the poor and the unhoused. Like I'll grant that Canadian conservativism trends Tory instead of Evangelical, that we have lagged behind the culture war and played catch-up with the US on shit like climate denial and rabid homophobia from our politicians, but I see this claim often in academic discussions of the Canadian right-wing, that we've missed the boat on the far-right movements happening in other western countries, but I never see any facts mustered for this claim, and the arguments I do see are shit like this, plainly and obviously stupid and wrong. The fact that the Canadian right-wing doesnt have the global reach of the United States or the UK/France isn't evidence against far-right movements in Canada, we are a stupid middle power western country with a fraction of the population of the US, why would you expect us to compete with the head of the imperial core

[allthecanadianpolitics]

hey just wanted to give you aheads up that the 2022 list you shared for immigration into Canada is outdated. Just this year alone canada has closed or changed several avenues of immigration processes you shared including removing permanent residency for international students, cutting up foreign worker visa policies and making it harder for Americans to pass border control

Sorry.

Do you have updated links with the correct information so I can share/add onto the post?

[opinated-user]

I feel like it's time to shine a light on MOs immigration again:

For the uninitiated: November 2022 is when LO asked her fans to donate money for this process. December 2023 is when one fan finally asked what happened to the money (they gave a good amount) and LO claimed they had at this point submitted all the necessary paperwork and are in the background stage. It is Now September 2024.

All the following information is taken directly from the official Canadian government page:

1. During the pandemic average waiting times spousal immigration was around 12 months, it has since gone down to ten. MOs immigration therefore should be going through within the year.

2. Once you've submitted your paperwork you are eligible to apply for a working visa, that is easier and quicker to get than normal if you link it to your immigration, and move to and work in Canada. This will also show the authorities that you are willing and able to support yourself in your new home, thus have a positive impact on your process.

While we don't know MOs circumstances, she very clearly loves LO and wants to be with her + her living conditions in the US are very bad. So I'd assume she'd want to move asap.

The fact that no further updates have been given to fans who gave them money is already suspicious. Best case scenario these two are not very good at navigating government sites, worst case scenario LO is stringing her along and pocketed the money raised. Also LO claims to have a lawyer on standby, who she could then theoretically consult about any questions about the process. Weird all that.

(while I do not necessarily think moving in with LO would be good for MO, I even more do not want her hopes and dreams crushed)

actually, that is not all. it's my belief that LO not only does not have any intention of moving MO with her, she also has already misused the money that she gained from her followers for her own gain without any disclosure.

in that post i showed, with evidence that i gathered myself and LO herself provided, that is highly likely that LO spend the money from that fundraising on a desk. not only that, at the same time that LO was bragging about getting this new desk (two days after making that fundraising, then lying about it), she was also talking about getting a another desk, a more expensive one, for MO. a desk that only LO would end up using because, again, they don't live together. all of this we were talking about at the start of this year and nothing has changed.

for the record, if LO had just said openly "guys, i need urgently a new desk, i need to use this money", nobody would have a problem with it. if LO had done a fundraising for a new desk in the first place, nobody would care. streamers and youtubers ask donations from their fanbase to get new equipment all the time, that is normal. the lack of transparency is the issue here.

the issue is that LO over two years now promised, both to her audience and to MO, that she'd be working on the immigration process. she used other people's money in order to do that. they deserve to know what happened to that money.

[chaithetics]

Free Things you can do from home to support Palestine!!! 🖤🤍❤️💚

Hey Tumblr besties! Here's a few ways to help Palestine that you can do from home and don't cost any money! It's pretty much just emails! Hopefully you have local organisations that have resources can help with this that are more specifically tailored to your government. But if you need help drafting emails, finding resources or want someone to proofread them before you send them, I'm more than happy to do that! Please do reach out, take a read and share as well please! Your voice matters and this is an important way to help, your emails can be as short or as long as you like! Much love 🖤🤍❤️💚

Palestinian Visas

- While many Palestinians are stuck in Israeli occupation and terrorism, there are some who have been able to evacuate but are further stuck in limbo or are not able to evacuate due to visa statuses and immigration policy of foreign governments.

- For example, In late December 2023, Minister Marc Miller, Canada's Immigration Minister announced a special category of visas for Palestinians in Palestine who are related to Palestinian-Canadians. Not a single visa has been granted and all applications are still in the early stages. Many Palestinian-Canadians have spoken about this, contacted the Minister and PM Trudeau and nothing. Minister Erica Stanford, the Minister for Immigration in Aotearoa New Zealand has not granted Palestinian visas and not made a special visa category despite releasing a press release in 2022 when she was in the opposition, criticising the Labour government for not doing enough for Ukrainians and not having created a special visa category within 14 days. She is not replying to correspondence on this.

What you can do-Email your head of Government (Prime Minister, President etc.) Governments across the world are structured differently but if you have a Minister of/for Immigration contact them, your local MPs/Congress members, senators etc., those with Immigration portfolios and interests.

Include these requests in your email:

To create a special humanitarian Visa category for Palestinians to apply for that is accessible.

To prioritise these visas, and expedite these visas with urgency.

To expedite any backlogged Palestinian visas urgently.

Sanctions against Israel

- Email your head of Government (President, Prime Minister etc.), your Minister of Foreign Affairs, local representatives and urge them to place sanctions against Israel.

This includes

Ending diplomatic ties, closing down Israeli embassies for example.

Export restrictions, ending military aid etc. Australia is providing materials to Israel that are used in making f35s for example.

Calling for a Permanent Ceasefire

- It is important that we continue to urge our Governments into advocating for and calling for a permanent ceasefire and recognise the state of Palestine.

- Email your Head of Government, your Ministers and representatives with foreign affairs portfolios and your local representatives to

Call and continue to advocate for a permanent ceasefire and recognition of Palestine as it's own state.

[songsofbloodandwater]

Settlers and newcomers, Black and Indigenous: the history we learn in elementary school is rooted in explorers and settlers. We learn about brave colonists fighting for freedom. [...] We all learn about how these countries were the ones that ended slavery. Somehow in this history, the very people who created the problem are transformed into the ones who saved us. Together we learn about immigrants and refugees who came here in search of something better and built a great country. The United States and Canada are positioned as communities of safety and refuge for newcomers leaving behind or sublimating their old identities and becoming American or Canadian. These histories become central truths, and when other histories are told or when somebody makes a racist remark, Americans say with surprise, “That’s not who we are!” Your collective memory is filled with stories about cooperation and communities, brave people banding together to defend their home and working together to create something for everyone. Our collective memory is filled with other stories. Other centers. [Our collective memories contain stories of displacement and disruption, occupation and domination. Even when we try to fit in, when we try to assimilate, we aren’t truly accepted.] Sometimes the center is created simply through the act of revolving around it. What if the things you have been told are not who you are?

— Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future (2022) by Patty Krawec

[fatehbaz]

The SAWP is a temporary labour program that brings foreign workers to Canada for periods between six weeks and eight months annually [...], paving the way for the recruitment of Jamaican workers as well as workers from other Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados [beginning] in 1968. [...] The SAWP has been a resounding success for Canadian growers because offshore indentured workers enable agribusiness to expand and secure large profits. Being indentured means that migrant farm workers are bound to specific employers by contractual agreements [...]. First, they are legally prevented from unionizing. [...] Additionally, because they are bound to specific employers, they must ensure that the employer is happy with them [...]. For instance, migrant farm workers are forced to agree to growers’ requests for long working hours, labour through the weekend, suppress complaints and avoid conflicts, if they want to stay out of “trouble” [...]. In “Canada’s Creeping Economic Apartheid”, Grace Galabuzi shows that the Canadian Government’s immigration policy is, in reality, a labour market immigration policy [...].

[Text by: Julie Ann McCausland. "Racial Capitalism, Slavery, Labour Regimes and Exploitation in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program". Caribbean Quilt Volume 5. 2020. Paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

A big finding that came out of the oral history interviews was a much richer tapestry of worker protest than has previously been documented. Speaking with workers – including former workers back in their home countries of Jamaica and Barbados – allowed me to hear the types of stories that often don’t make it into archives or newspapers. Interviewees told me stories about wildcat strikes, about negotiating conditions with employers, and also about protesting their home governments’ role in organizing the migrant labour program. [...] [T]hings did not have to be this way; our current world was anything but inevitable. [...] [But] economic forces transformed tobacco farming (and agriculture writ large), [...] leaving mega-operations in their wake. [...] [L]arge operations could afford [...] bringing in foreign guestworkers. The attraction of foreign workers was not due to labour shortages, but instead in their much higher degree of exploitability, given the strict nature of their contracts and the economic compulsion under which they pursued overseas migrant labour. [...] Ontario’s tobacco belt (located in between Hamilton and London, on the north shore of Lake Erie), was from the 1920s to 1980s one the most profitable sectors in Canadian agriculture and the epicentre of migrant labour in the country [...]. In most years, upwards of 25,000 workers were needed to bring in the crop. [...]

[The words of Edward Dunsworth. Text is a transcript of Dunsworth's responses in an interview conducted and transcribed by Andria Caputo. 'Faculty Publication Spotlight: Ed Dunsworth's "Harvesting Labour"'. Published online at McGill Faculty of Arts. 15 December 2022. At: mcgill.ca/arts/article/faculty-publication-spotlight-ed-dunsworths-harvesting-labour. Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

---

Jamaican agricultural workers say they face conditions akin to “systematic slavery” on Canadian farms, as they call on Jamaica to address systemic problems in a decades-old, migrant labour programme in Canada. In a letter sent to Jamaica’s minister of labour and social security earlier this month [August 2022], workers [...] said they have been “treated like mules” on two farms in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. [...] The workers [...] are employed under [...] (SAWP), which allows Canadian employers to hire temporary migrant workers from Mexico and 11 countries in the Caribbean [...]. “We work for eight months on minimum wage and can’t survive for the four months back home. The SAWP is exploitation at a seismic level. Employers treat us like we don’t have any feelings, like we’re not human beings. We are robots to them. They don’t care about us.” Between 50,000 and 60,000 foreign agricultural labourers come to Canada each year on temporary permits [...]. Canada exported more than $63.3bn ($82.2bn Canadian) in agriculture and food products in 2021 – making it the fifth-largest exporter of agri-food in the world. [...]

[Text by: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours. "Jamaican farmworkers decry ‘seismic-level exploitation’ in Canada". Al Jazeera (English). 24 August 2022.]

---

In my home country, St. Lucia, we believe in a fair day’s pay [...]. In Canada, we give more than a fair day’s work, but we do not get a fair day’s pay. [...] I worked in a greenhouse in [...] Ontario, growing and harvesting tomatoes and organic sweet peppers for eight months of the year, from 2012 to 2015. [...] In the bunkhouse where I lived, there were typically eight workers per room. Newly constructed bunkhouses typically have up to fourteen people per room. [...] I also received calls from workers (especially Jamaicans) who were either forbidden – or strongly discouraged – from leaving the farm property. This outrageous overreach of employer control meant that workers had difficulty sending money home, or buying necessary items [...]. [O]n a lot of farms, [...] workers’ movement and activity is policed by their employers. The government knows about this yet fails to act.

[Text are the words of Gabriel Allahdua. Text from a transcript of an interview conducted by Edward Dunworth. '“Canada’s Dirty Secret”: An Interview with Gabriel Allahdua about migrant farm workers’ pandemic experience'. Published by Syndemic Magazine, Issue 2: Labour in a Treacherous Time. 8 March 2022. Some paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

The CSAWP is structured in such a way as to exclude racialized working class others from citizen-track entry into the country while demarcating them to a non-immigrant status as temporary, foreign and unfree labourers. The CSAWP is [...] a relic of Canada’s racist and colonial past, one that continues unimpeded in the present age [...]. [T]he Canadian state has offered a concession to the agricultural economic sector in the way of an ambiguous legal entity through which foreign agricultural workers are legally disenfranchised and legally denied citizenship rights.

[Text by: Adam Perry. "Barely legal: Racism and migrant farm labour in the context of Canadian multiculturalism". Citizenship Studies, 16:2, 189-201. 2012.]

---

Other publications:

Smith. 'Troubling “project Canada”: the Caribbean and the making of “unfree migrant labour”’. Canadian Journal of Latin American Studies Volume 40, number 2. 2015.

Choudry and Thomas. "Labour struggles for workplace justice: migrant and immigrant worker organizing in Canada". Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 55, number 2. 2013.

Harsha Walia. "Transient servitude: migrant labour in Canada and the apartheid of citizenship". Race & Class 52, number 1. 2010.

Beckford. "The experiences of Caribbean migrant farmworkers in Ontario, Canada". Social and Economic Studies Volume 65, number 1. 2016.

Edward Dunsworth. Harvesting Labour: Tobacco and the Global Making of Canada’s Agricultural Workforce (2022).

Edward Dunsworth. “‘Me a free man’: resistance and racialisation in the Canada-Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program,” Oral History Volume 49, number 1. Spring 2021.

[npzlawyersforimmigration]

How to Create Your USCIS Online Account: A Step-by-Step Guide

https://visaserve.com/how-to-create-your-uscis-online-account-a-step-by-step-guide/

#USCIS #ImmigrationHelp #myUSCIS #ImmigrationLaw #OnlineAccount #ImmigrationSupport #VisaProcess #USCISAccount #ImmigrationTips #SecureYourAccount #USCISGuidelines #VisaApplication

[stargazer-sims]

The Art Of Redemption - Timeline

Okay, so this isn't a timeline strictly for The Art of Redemption. It's more like a timeline for characters that appear in that story as well as in We Are Sugar Valentine, since the two are more than tangentially connected.

We Are Sugar Valentine is taking place in present day (2022-2024) and The Art of Redemption takes place in 2011-2012.

I noticed that several people may have been confused because I tend to jump around a lot between stories and also with random vignettes. It's all perfectly clear in my head, but since nobody else is living in my head, I thought a timeline of important events for all the major characters would help everyone make sense of it.

Anyway, for anyone who's interested, you can find the timeline under the cut:

1950

Nikolai Pavlenko (Nikolai’s grandfather) - 1 December 1950

1951

Stanislav Kovac - 3 June 1951

Milena Novotný (later Kovac) - 6 June 1951

1963

Jason Jones (brother of Beth-Anne) - 26 August 1963

1966

Elena Federova (later Pavlenko) - 13 January 1966

Mikhail Pavlenko (Nikolai’s father) - 28 December 1966

1968

Stan comes to Canada from Czech Republic to train with a renowned figure skating coach and to compete at ISU Senior level

Milena comes to Canada from Czech Republic as part of a foreign exchange student program

Stan and Milena meet at their high school

1970

Seong Min-Joon (a.k.a. George Seong) - 13 May 1970

Beth-Anne Dorothy Jones (born Jennifer Elizabeth Anne Jones) - 30 October 1970

1972

Stan wins an Olympic silver medal

1973

Milena finishes her undergraduate degree and begins law school

Stan and Milena become Canadian citizens

1976

Stan asks Milena to marry him

Milena graduates from law school

Abby Jones (sister of Beth-Anne) - 19 August 1976

Kim In-Hae (later known as Evie Seong) - 5 November 1976

1977

Stan and Milena get married on Valentine’s Day

Peace Adebayo - 25 June 1977

1978

Sae (Sarah) Ishida - 21 July 1978

1979

Stan & Milena’s daughter Alžbeta is born

Stan retires from competing and decides to pursue coaching as a profession

1980

Satoru (Stephen) Fujikawa - 16 January 1980

1981

Beth-Anne is put in foster care in April when she ends up in the hospital after being seriously injured by her mother

Jason turns 18 in August and becomes Beth-Anne's guardian

Jason and Beth-Anne's mother Claudia tells them their sister Abby is deceased and they try to find out if this is true, but the Department of Community Services won't give Jason any information

Jason and Beth-Anne experience several months of homelessness

1982

Beth-Anne's coach, Nancy Rogers, lets Jason and Beth-Anne move in with her until Jason gets a job and the siblings find a place of their own

Nancy helps Beth-Anne and Jason track down their father. He doesn't want contact with them but he sends them money each month.

Beth-Anne is able to resume skating

Christian Lindeman - 11 April 1982

1983

Hunter MacKay - 18 March 1983

Nikolai’s grandfather and parents immigrate to Canada six months before Nikolai and Natascha are born

Nikolai and Natascha Pavlenko - 18 December 1983

1985

Anna-Valentina Baranova (Anya Pavlenko) - 22 April 1985

Vivienne Louise (Ginger) Holmes - 14 September 1985

Juliet Cole - 8 October 1985

1987

Viktoriya (Vika) Vasilieva - 26 February 1987

Stan becomes Beth-Anne's coach

1988

Beth-Anne legally changes her name to Beth-Anne Dorothy Jones

Mikhaïl (Mishka) Vasiliev - 10 February 1988

1990

Mishka and Vika are taken away from their biological parents due to neglect and unsafe living conditions, and placed with the Vasiliev family. They are adopted by Dr. and Mrs. Vasiliev later that year.

1991

Beth-Anne wins gold at Skate Canada and eventually goes on to win bronze at the World Championship

Death of Jason Jones

Beth-Anne is in an accident during the off-season that ends her competitive skating career

Stan and Milena take Beth-Anne into their home while she recovers from her injuries

1992

Beth-Anne is sufficiently recovered from her accident to move out of Stan and Milena's house and go forward with her life, and she decides to go to university. She also decides to keep skating, even if she can no longer do it competitively

Grandpa Nikolai, Mikhail and Elena become Canadian citizens

1994

Nikolai competes in his first ISU event, in the Novice division, and wins silver

Nikolai’s grandfather gives him Champion the teddy bear

1996

Beth-Anne graduates with a degree in education and gets a job at an all-girls school as a physical education teacher

Beth-Anne stops skating at the Brindleton Bay Skating Club because seeing her friends and rivals continue to get ready for competitions while she just skates during community ice times is too painful and stress-inducing for her

Ginger competes in her first ISU event, in the Novice division

Brett Andrew Eriksson - 25 April 1996

1998

Evie & George Seong immigrate to Canada in January

Sadie Hae-Won Seong - 29 November 1998

1999

Competitive skier Stephen Fujikawa marries J-pop idol Sae (Sarah Ishida)

Nikolai’s family leaves Ontario and moves to Nova Scotia (Brindleton Bay is a fictional bedroom community of Halifax NS)

Ginger comes to Canada from the UK specifically to train with Stan

Stan also becomes Nikolai’s coach

Nikolai meets Ginger, Anya, Hunter, Juliet and Christian

2000

Nikolai adopts Tangerine the cat

Eden Yeon-Jin Seong & Charles Ki-Yeon (Charlie) Seong - 23 May 2000

Sakuharu (Haru) Abe - 11 June 2000

Stan convinces Beth-Anne to come back to the Brindleton Bay Skating Club

Beth-Anne meets Nikolai for the first time and she becomes his coach

Sebastian Fujikawa - 9 September 2000

2001

Haru’s mother passes away from a drug overdose. Haru is raised by his maternal grandparents

Nikolai wins gold at Skate Canada when he wasn't even expected to place in the top ten, much less the top three. Stan shoots the iconic "forever" photo of Nikolai and Beth-Anne. Nikolai gives Beth-Anne his medal

Stan and Milena’s grandson Marek is born in November (future figure skater)

2002

Stephen wins an Olympic gold medal in giant slalom

Sarah goes on tour and there's a scandal when someone starts a rumour about her and her bodyguard. It gets massive publicity and Stephen doesn't know what to think.

Peace immigrates from Nigeria to Canada with her children Mercy (3) and Praise (1).

2004

Nikolai wins his first World Figure Skating Championship medal (silver)

2006

Nikolai wins his first World Championship gold medal

Stephen and Sarah divorce, and it’s messy. It's also highly publicized due to their respective statuses in sports and entertainment

Stephen is granted full custody of his son Sebastian

Mishka gets drafted into the NHL and begins his pro hockey career with an American team

Beth-Anne becomes Brett's coach

2007

Stephen retires from his athletic career and joins his father and aunt in the family's sports equipment company

Stephen adopts Sofia. She is seven, the same age as Sebastian

2008

Nikolai and Anya get married

Natascha marries local construction worker, Alex MacDonald

2010

Nikolai wins his second World Championship gold medal in a row and his third Worlds gold overall

Ginger also wins gold at Worlds

Ginger becomes a Canadian citizen

2011 (The Art Of Redemption)

Nikolai seriously injures his knee while competing at the four Continents Championship in January

Beth-Anne lets Nikolai stay at her place while he's recovering from his injury and dealing with his marital issues

Beth-Anne and Peace meet

Eden and Nikolai meet

Nikolai decides he wants to be a coach

Brett wins a medal in his last competition at Junior level

Beth-Anne decides she wants to find out what really happened to her sister Abby. Stan, Milena and Nikolai support her in her quest.

Anya retires from competition and goes to work with her grandfather in his photography studio

Brett and Nikolai have a one-on-one competition

Nikolai and Anya get divorced

Eden and Sebastian both compete in their first ISU events at Novice level

Haru discovers that despite his learning disability, he's exceptional at writing poetry

2012

Beth-Anne and Peace are in a casual relationship

2013

Ginger retires from competition

Nikolai officially becomes Eden's coach

Ginger has a whirlwind romance with British businessman Liam Harris

Mishka gets traded to the Mariners in a mid-season trade

Mishka and Nikolai meet by chance on Nikolai’s birthday

Ginger and Liam elope at Christmas

2014

Nikolai and Mishka have moved past simple friendship quickly and are in a relationship

Natascha and Alex get divorced. Natascha moves back in with her parents and grandfather

Anya continues to be an unwanted presence in Nikolai's life

Liam convinces Ginger to return to the UK with him

Ginger meets Sebastian and Sofia, who are attending a UK boarding school, and she becomes Sebastian’s coach

Ginger meets Stephen Fujikawa

2015

Eden wins gold at the World Junior Figure Skating Championship

2016

Eden has his debut at Senior level. It doesn't go as well as he expects

Ginger and Liam divorce

Ginger goes to Japan with Sebastian and Sofia at the end of the school year

Stephen offers to let Ginger live in a cottage on his property and Sebastian is thrilled because he gets to live so close to his “bonus mom”

Haru gets recruited as a J-pop trainee while performing at his school's music festival.

2017

After four years together, Nikolai and Mishka part ways, due to a number of issues. They promise to keep in touch, and to try and get back together some day, if and when their lives stabliize

Haru begins his adventure as a trainee and meets future bandmates Ryu, Keigo, Senjiro and Taiji

2018

TheJ-pop group Sugar Valentine debuts. Eden and Charlie are instantly huge fans

2020

Charlie goes to college to study cosmetology and aesthetics and starts taking Japanese classes. His dream is to become a professional stylist in the entertainment industry

Sugar Valentine goes on tour for the first time

2022 (We Are Sugar Valentine)

Charlie is ready to head to Japan to begin his adventure. He and Eden have never been apart, and Eden decides to go to Japan with him. Nikolai is heartbroken at this development, as he and Eden have been together as coach and student for years.

Despite not wanting to be separated from Eden, Nikolai hesitates to go to Japan because he's an extreme homebody and doesn't want to uproot himself from everything familiar in his life

Eden finds a new coach in Japan. It goes absolutely terribly.

Charlie lands his dream job, as part of the stylist team for Sugar Valentine

Haru sees pictures of Eden in Charlie's portfolio and begs to be introduced

Charlie introduces Eden and Haru. They quickly become an item

Nikolai eventually joins Eden in Japan, after learning how badly things are going for Eden. It's a difficult adjustment for Nikolai

Nikolai is delighted to discover that Ginger is coaching Sebastian at the exact rink where Eden is training. They've kept in touch over the years, but the physical distance between them has made things challenging. They waste no time in catching up

Mishka decides he's going to retire after the 2022-23 hockey season. He needs knee surgery that he's put off for too long

Sugar Valentine goes on tour again

Mishka contacts Nikolai and tells him that he's coming to see him for his birthday in December

Mishka gives Nikolai a kitten for his birthday. They name him Boris

Nikolai is juggling Anya's continued presence in his life and his feeling that maybe he and Ginger could be more than friends

Nikolai asks for time, and Mishka vows to wait for him

2023

Ginger and Nikolai experiment with having a relationship beyond friendship. It doesn't work out because as much as they love each other, they realize they'll never get past thinking of each other as siblings.

Eden wins his first World Championship gold medal

Mishka contacts Nikolai and tells him his surgery is scheduled for the first week of June. He asks Nikolai to come home for the summer, to help take care of him while he recovers, and Nikolai agrees.

Mishka moves into Nikolai's house during his recovery

Even though they haven't been together as a couple for several years, both Nikolai and Mishka realize their feelings for each other are just as strong as ever. They pick up right where they left off

Eden comes home around the same time as Nikolai. They mutually decide not to return to Japan.

Haru buys Eden a house in Brindleton Bay

Mishka does not move out of Nikolai's house in August, like they originally planned.

Mishka proposes to Nikolai at Christmas. They plan their wedding for the following summer

2024

Sugar Valentine undertakes their third tour

Haru gives Eden a horse for his birthday. He also gives himself one for his own birthday, which is only 19 days after Eden's

Mishka rescues a horse. He helps Eden and Haru with theirs.

Natascha finally decides it's time to move out of her parents' house and get her own place again

Mishka's sister Vika comes to visit him and Nikolai for the summer

Nikolai's grandfather decides to move into a seniors' community.

Grandpa Nikolai meets someone from his past, and has big feelings about it

Nikolai and Mishka get married in July

[inc-immigrationnewscanada]

New Update By IRCC Minister On Processing & Backlog In 2022

🇨🇦 IRCC Minister #SeanFraserMP updates on #immigration applications #processing and #backlog 🇨🇦 4.8 million files processed in 2022 vs 2.5 million in 2021 🇨🇦 Check out category-wise numbers and #progress in reducing backlog so far👇

Today, IRCC Minister Sean Fraser marks a record-breaking year for processing immigration applications. He emphasized the work accomplished in 2022 in reducing IRCC backlogs. IRCC has processed roughly 4.8 million applications as of the end of November. This is nearly double the 2.5 million processed over the same time period the previous year. Furthermore, IRCC has decreased its entire…

[mariacallous]

Lansing — Democratic lawmakers are condemning a social media post from Republican state Rep. Josh Schriver of Oxford that promoted "the great replacement" theory, a racist ideological belief that there's a coordinated global effort to diminish the influence of White people.

On Tuesday, Schriver shared a post of a graphic that depicted black figurines covering most of a map of the world, with white figures occupying smaller sections of Australia, Canada, northern Europe and the northern United States. The bottom of the graphic read "The great replacement!"

The graphic, initially posted by right-wing pundit Jack Posobiec, was reposted by Schriver with an emoji of a chart showing a downward trend on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

In a statement Wednesday to The Detroit News, Schriver said he loved "all of God's offspring" and believed "everyone's immense value is rooted in the price Christ paid on the Cross when he died for our sins.

"I'm opposed to racists, race baiters, and victim politics," Schriver said in the statement. "What I find strange is the agenda to demoralize and reduce the white portion of our population. That's not inclusive and Christ is inclusive! I'm glad Tucker Carlson and Jack Posobiec are sharing links so I can continue my research on these issues."

The "great replacement" conspiracy theory asserts there is a coordinated effort to dilute the influence of White people through immigration and through low birth rates among White individuals, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The theory has been linked to anti-Semitism, with some versions alleging it is Jews coordinating the so-called replacement.

The shooter in a 2022 Buffalo, New York supermarket shooting that killed 10, most of whom were Black, raised the theory in a manifesto as a motive for the killings, the Associated Press reported. The killer in the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburg blamed Jews for bringing non-white immigrants to the U.S.; a 2019 Poway, California synagogue shooter claimed Jews were responsible for the killing of White Europeans; and a shooter who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 talked about a "Hispanic invasion" in his manifesto, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

At least a half-dozen Republican U.S. Senate candidates promoted the "great replacement" conspiracy theory in the 2022 elections, the AP reported.

House Speaker Joe Tate, a Detroit Democrat and Michigan's first Black speaker, said Schriver's "blatantly racist social media post" and later statement on the issue do not align with the chamber's values and are "deeply and personally" offensive.

Schriver's insistence that the issue was worthy of consideration "puts his ignorance on full display," Tate said in a statement, but is not an excuse for "proliferating obvious hate."

“Perhaps most disturbing is that his post uplifts a dangerous and tortured narrative that fosters violence and instability," Tate said. "His callous and reckless act is not within the spirit of what Michigan is, and it contributes to a hostile environment."

Rep. Jason Hoskins, a Black Democratic lawmaker from Southfield, also criticized the post Wednesday night.

"Michigan House Republican celebrates Black History Month by promoting racist and dangerous conspiracies that there are too many people of color," Hoskins wrote on X.

House Republican Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, did not respond to a request Wednesday night for comment about Schriver's post.

Rep. Kelly Breen, D-Novi, condemned the post as "blatantly racist" and "dangerous rhetoric" that has no place in society or in the state Legislature.

"It saddens & infuriates me that a colleague shared this," Breen wrote on X. "For someone who claims to love God - Rep. Schriver is blind to the fact this would make Him weep."

Elected in 2022, Schriver represents the 66th District in the Michigan House of Representatives, which includes Addison, Brandon, Oxford townships and most of Oakland Township in Oakland County and Bruce and Washington townships in Macomb County. The Warren native is a graduate of De La Salle Collegiate High School.

Schriver serves on the House Natural Resources, Environment, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Committee.

Condemnation of Schriver's post extended beyond Michigan political circles.

The Northern Guard Supporters, a fan group supporting the Detroit City Football Club, also condemned the post and said the first term lawmaker was not welcome among the fan group. Schriver's wife plays for the Detroit City Football Club women's team, which plays in the Premier Arena Soccer League.

Nick Finn, who helps run communications for the group, said fans "won't tolerate that in our stands." On X, Northern Guard Supporters noted that the league included "players from all ethnic backgrounds in a high minority population city."

"It’s very upsetting to see something like that, one, from any representative in Michigan, let alone one directly connected to a member our team,” Finn told The News on Wednesday.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amanda Lewellyn at Vox:

Canada has a growing populism problem. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thinks so. Like many other countries — including the United States — Canadians have spent the last several years dealing with pandemic restrictions, a rise in immigration, and a housing affordability crisis (among much, much else). And like many other countries, that’s showing up in a host of ways: Trust in institutions like the government and media is down. Sentiment on immigration is becoming more negative.

“Well, first of all, it’s a global trend,” Trudeau told Sean Rameswaram in an exclusive interview on Today, Explained. “In every democracy, we’re seeing a rise of populists with easy answers that don’t necessarily hold up to any expert scrutiny. But a big part of populism is condemning and ignoring experts and expertise. So it sort of feeds on itself.” As Trudeau points out, Canada is not alone. But our northern neighbor’s struggle is notable because the country has long been seen as resistant to the kind of anti-immigrant, anti-establishment rhetoric sweeping the globe in recent years — in part because multiculturalism is enshrined in federal law.

It goes back to the 1960s, when French Canadian nationalist groups started to gain power in Quebec. They called for the province’s independence from Canada proper. The federal government, led then by nepo daddy Pierre Trudeau, stepped in. Rather than validating one cultural identity over the other, the elder Trudeau’s government established a national policy of bilingualism, requiring all federal institutions to provide services in both English and French. (This is why — if you ever watch Canadian parliamentary proceedings, as I did for this story — politicians are constantly flipping back and forth between the two languages.) Canada also adopted a formal multiculturalism policy in 1971, affirming Canadians’ multicultural heritage. The multiculturalism policy has undergone both challenge and expansion in the half-century since its introduction. But Pierre Trudeau’s decision to root Canadian identity in diversity has had lasting impacts: Canadians have historically been much more open to immigration — despite having a greater proportion of immigrants in their population — than their other Western counterparts.

But in more recent years, that’s begun to change rapidly as large numbers of immigrants have entered the country amid a housing affordability crisis. An Environics Institute survey showed that in 2023, 44 percent of Canadians felt there was too much immigration — an increase from 27 percent the year before. That’s where Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre comes in. Known as a “soft” populist, he’s started calling on Canada to cut immigration levels (so far, without demonizing immigrants, as we’ve seen from his populist counterparts elsewhere in the West). That said, he looks like a traditional populist in a lot of other ways: Poilievre embraced Canada’s 2022 Freedom Convoy protests, opposed vaccine and mask requirements, voted against marriage equality, has proposed defunding the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, wants schools to leave LGBTQ issues to parents, and has talked about repealing a litany of government regulations — from the country’s carbon tax to internet regulations. Basically, he’s against any “gatekeepers” to Canadians’ “freedom.”

[...]

The plan: Fight populism with policy

Enter: Trudeau’s half-trillion-Canadian-dollar plan for “generational fairness,” also known as the “Gen Z budget” for its focus on younger generations feeling the economic squeeze most acutely. [...]

Can it work?

The bet Trudeau is making is this: The best counterpoint to anti-establishment rhetoric is … using the establishment to make people’s lives better. “The biggest difference between me and the Conservatives right now is: They don’t think government has a role to play in solving for these problems,” Trudeau told Today, Explained. “I think government can’t solve everything, nor should it try. But it can make sure that if the system isn’t working for young people, that we rebalance the system. Market forces are not going to do that.” A key challenge will be demonstrating progress by the time elections roll around. Housing and real estate experts generally cheered the announcement — but noted that it might be years before people on the ground see any real change. Elections, on the other hand, aren’t yet scheduled but have to happen by October 2025 (parliamentary systems, man).

Even Canada isn't immune to the trend of increased right-wing populism, as it could end the reign of PM Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party.

Trudeau is trying his best to counter it by enacting a Gen Z-focused budget plan.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The federal government is expanding a list of Iranian officials that are inadmissible to Canada. Ottawa first introduced measures under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) in November 2022 that barred a number of senior Iranian officials from entering Canada. Those measures applied to people who were senior members of the Iranian government from November 2019 onward.  But the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced Sunday that its pushing that date back to June 23, 2003.

Continue Reading.

Tagging:: @newsfromstolenland

[darkmaga-returns]

Birth rates are plummeting across the world — America, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Italy, Japan, Russia, and now England and Wales. Nearly every developed country has seen a large decline in the fertility rate as a direct result of economics. People simply cannot afford the costs associated with raising children and it is slowly changing civilization. England and Wales recently reported the lowest fertility on record since it began collecting data in 1938. Fertility rates in the UK are falling faster than any other G7 nation.

The total fertility rate (TFR) fell to 1.44 per woman in 2023 compared to 1.49 in 2022, marking the lowest on record since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) began collecting data. There were 591,072 new births recorded last year but that is the lowest figure since 1977. The ONS stated that “natural” population replacement may only occur when women have a fertility rate of 2.1 children.

Fertility rates across the world are plummeting but individual nations are seeing their populations explode as a direct result of immigration. In fact, the number of migrants entering the UK far surpasses the birth rate, with an estimated 685,000 migrants entering the UK in 2023.

We are witnessing population replacement at play. Birth rates are declining across developed nations among the citizens who can no longer afford to expand their families. On the other hand, these nations opened their borders and provided free shelter, healthcare, etc., to migrants who are comfortably expanding their families. In the UK, we are witnessing a  Christian nation being replaced with Islamic views and ideals as most migrants arrive from the Middle East, and their culture encourages having larger families. We are witnessing a shift in society as the current citizens are being phased out and replaced by newcomers.